WOLFEBORO — Just hours before Police Commissioner Robert Copeland resigned Monday after coming under intense fire for his use of a racial slur to describe President Barack Obama, a NAACP release called Copeland’s remarks ‘truly abhorrent.’

The state director of the NAACP released a statement earlier in the day calling for Copeland to step down.

“His stated negative views of our United States President Barack Obama are truly abhorrent,” the release issued Monday morning stated. “These views clearly do not reflect the views of hundreds of Wolfeboro residents: many of whom came out expressing their negative views of the commissioner’s comments steeped in racism.”

The statement was signed by NAACP N.H. State Director Purnell “Fred” Ross Jr.

Wolfeboro Police Commission Chairman Joe Balboni announced in a press release Monday afternoon that Copeland tendered his resignation in a brief email sent to Balboni Sunday night.

“We’ve got a lot of healing to do in this town,” Balboni said in a CNN interview Monday, according to the Police Commission release.

Calls for Copeland’s resignation began last week after resident Jane O’Toole wrote to the town manager saying she heard Copeland use the slur against the president.

The outrage intensified when Copeland, who had just been re-elected to a three-year term, confirmed he used the racist remark and defended its use. “I believe I did use the ‘N’ word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse,” Copeland said in an email to fellow police commissioners, a portion of which he forwarded to O’Toole. “For this, I do not apologize — he meets and exceeds my criteria for such.”

Copeland’s defiance prompted numerous news stories about the incident — which took place in this predominantly white New Hampshire town of 6,300 people — including by The Washington Post, The Guardian, CNN and The Boston Globe.

Last week more than 100 people showed up at a town meeting, many of whom called for Copeland’s resignation, while the police commissioner sat with his arms crossed in defiance.

Calls for Copeland’s resignation also came from politicians, including U.S. Sens. Kelly Ayotte and Jeanne Shaheen, as well as Gov. Maggie Hassan and 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who owns a home in Wolfeboro.

After hearing of Copeland’s resignation, Ross said it was a step in the right direction.

“I think that some people were shocked about how the citizens of Wolfeboro came out asking that he resign and that’s a positive thing because it shows that everybody is not a bigot,” Ross said. “Some of the old bigots just got to get used to the fact that the world is changing.”